Maimi 101: “Tanobaru”

One of the things that comes up often in Maimi’s blog entries is the word “tanobaru”. When I do the summaries of Maimi’s blogs I like to reference it when she uses it, as it’s one of her special little things. However, as I leave it in the original Japanese, I realize there’s probably some Maimi fans who are confused as to what it means (and even moreso if they try plugging one of her entries into Google Translate…). For those fans, I’ve decided to make this update explaining the origin and meaning of “tanobaru”.

The first thing to note is that “tanobaru” is a word made-up by Maimi herself. It first appeared in her 2010/04/26 entry at the official ℃-ute blog, where she ended her entry asking her fans to also “tanobarimashou” all day long. Then, in parenthesis, she explained that “tanobaru” means to have fun while giving one’s best. It’s a combination of the two verbs “tanoshimu” and “ganbaru“. Also a verb, “tanobaru” conjugates just as “ganbaru” would. The most common conjugations that Maimi uses in her blog are “tanobarou/tanobarimashou” (“Let’s tanobaru”), “tanobatte-kudasai” (“Please tanobaru”), and “tanobatte-imasu/tanobatte-kimasu” (“I am tanobaru-ing/I will tanobaru”).

As it’s a made-up word, there’s no official English translation. However, there’s no reason us Western fans can’t just use it as it is and add it to our verbal lexicon in honor of Maimi. So now that everyone reading is up on the meaning of the word, let’s tanobaru!